eputable also
found their own places. And the mining camp began to take on an
appearance of domesticity and home.

Matthew Begbie, later, like Douglas, given a title for his services to
the Empire, had, as we have seen, first come out under direct
appointment by the crown; and when parliamentary government was
organized in British Columbia his position was confirmed as chief
justice. He had less regard for red tape than most chief justices.
Like Douglas, he first maintained law and order and then looked up to
see if he had any authority for it. No man ever did more for a mining
camp than Sir {92} Matthew Begbie. He stood for the rights of the
poorest miner. In private life he was fond of music, art, and
literature; but in public life he was autocratic as a czar and sternly
righteous as a prophet. He was a vigilance committee in himself
through sheer force of personality. Crime did not flourish where
Begbie went. Chinaman or Indian could be as sure of justice as the
richest miner in Cariboo. From hating and fearing him, the camp came
almost to worship him.

Many are the stories of his circuits. Once a jury persisted in
bringing in a verdict of manslaughter in place of murder.

'Prisoner,' thundered Begbie, 'it is not a pleasant duty to me to
sentence you _only_ to prison for life. You deserve to be hanged. Had
the jury performed their duty, I might have the painful satisfaction of
condemning you to death. You, gentlemen of the jury, permit me to say
that it would give me great pleasure to sentence you to be hanged each
and every one of you, for bringing in a murderer guilty only of
manslaughter.'

On another occasion, when an American had 'accidentally' shot an
Indian, the coroner rendered a verdict 'worried to death by a dog.'
Begbie ordered another inquest. This {93} time the coroner returned a
finding that the Indian 'had been killed by falling over a cliff.'
Begbie on his own authority ordered the American seized and taken down
to Victoria. On his way down the prisoner escaped from the constable.
This type of hair-trigger gunmen at once fled the country when Begbie
came.

Mr Alexander, one of the Overlanders of '62, tells how 'Begbie's
decisions may not have been good law, but they were first-class
justice.' His 'doctrine was that if a man were killed, some one had to
be hanged for it; and the effect was salutary.' A man had been
sandbagged in a Victoria saloon and thrown out to die. His comp